Stories

Leather

by Summer, Age 13
, Grade 7

Leather

By Summer Croswell

(Blind/Mystery Theme)

I woke up and coughed, I had somehow inhaled half the dirt floor i was laying on. I couldnt see lights, but I felt them. I touched the stiches in my eyes. They were still puffy and wet. An afull smell filled the room, I knew it was him. I thought maybe he was still alive since I was, but I was wrong. I crawled around the ground to feel a leather like texture. I slid my hand up the mass, a smooth cold texture replaced the leather, it was a face. I felt over the first body, there was another. I kept crawling and crawling, until I realized, there were hundreds.

My name is Iza Orlando, i'm 26 and a senoir detective at the Lenksville police department. When I was 15 I was involved in a mass murder of over 40 people. Of course, I survied, unlike my brother. Although I survied, I feel as if I suffered a worse fate then the others. Dealing with the burden of catching the killer, and my disability.

I arrived on the scene, I couldnt see anything, but the other detectives tried explaining it to me. “32 bodies, found in a sewage pipe. All mutilated and sewn together like dolls. Reminds me of you and your brothers case, Miss Iza” one of the older detectives said to me. I shook my head, “Any leather?” I asked fiddiling with the pen in my pocket. After I got no answer within a few seconds, I put my hand out to grab the shoulder of a medic. He jumped back startled, “H-How did you-” He stumbled “Don’t ask, may I see that body” He unzipped the plastic bag and I felt over the victims body. Rough skin with tiny bumps on the face. “This wasnt him, this isnt how he does things. This was a quick job, he takes his time.” I stated facing the detective. I slid my glasses off my face to clean them off. I heard the medic behind me shutter and rush off with the body. “You cant be serious. Your telling me by examining one out of 32 bodies you can tell if it was him or not. They all have the same condition as you and your brother!” He yelled at me. “I might have been young, but that memory is in my head,” I pushed the glasses back onto my face and pulled up my sleve, revealing A strip of lether sewn into my skin. “If there was no foriegn objects in the skin, it wasnt him” I said sternly.

“We have a suspect Miss Iza,” Jacob sat down at my desk. Jacob was a 2nd year at the office. He respected me, which I liked. “For which case?” I asked, my hand on a small book with bumps on it. “The recent one.” He knew that I was right about the crimes being different. “Are they here?” I asked closing the book and setting it in a drawer. “Yes in the inter-” He trailed off as I headed to the room. I opened the door and set my sunglasses on the desk. I heard a shutter from the suspect. “Your innocent arent you” I asked facing him. “Y-yes, I- I have an alibi” He said with harsh breath. I could tell he was scared, not that he was being accused for the murder of 32 people, but he was scared of me. “Who’s your alibi” I asked slididng the sunglasses back on to calm him. “My sister” He said. I slid the chair back and walked out the room, relayed the information to the other detectives, and walked outside.

You couldnt tell my situation just by seeing me walk down the street, I walk like a normal person, I know where I'm going. I walked for a few hours to end up in a field. I walked forward then took a left, then a right, then another right. Thats when I found it. I felt the wood of the cabin, microcopic splinters sticking in my fingers. I touched the cold door knob and twisted it. Dust flew from the dirt floor. I knew that the bodies were removed, but I can still smell the decomposing corpeses. Thats when I felt a harsh breath go down my neck. I quickly turned around and reached my hand up to its face. I shivered at the feeling of leather and cloth. It was him. He grabbed my head and I felt a cold object slice across my eyes. I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the small amount of light. I hadnt seen anything since I was 15. I looked up at him. He was a terrifying sight, he had no hair nor skin, just pieces of cloth and leather nicely sewn into the form of a human. He wore tattered clothes and his eyes looked like glass. It reminded me of a old doll. A bit of blood ran down my face from my freshly cut stiches. I snapped out of my trance and grabbed the knife from him. I stabbed it into the side of his body. He fell to the ground. I had beat him, after 11 years. I heard the sirens outside the door, I ran outside and screamed, “I GOT HIM, FINALLY!” I said screaming, blood over my clothes. All of a sudden, everything went black. I was put in cuffs. “Iza Orlando you are charged with murder for the death of Jacob Silon” I heard the detectives talking while I was being forced into a car, “A ring was found in the boys pocket, he had followed her as he thought she might have been going home.”